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Malphite/Strategy
Recommended Items Tips ;Playing As * Armor naturally reduces the rate that attacks go through , so will strengthen the against physical damage. * Despite his abilities scaling on armor, some games require Malphite to get magic resistance. When those games occur, try getting , , and . ;Playing Against * If you're a physical damage champion, stay behind your allies when fighting Malphite. can significantly reduce your damage output. * Malphite is one of a couple tanks who are capable of jungling. Watch out if he gets . Tricks ;Ability Usage * is an impenetrable wall of with stellar potential. He is mostly played as a tank in top lane, support or jungle. * **Malphite's passive periodically grants him a shield based on his . **This helps Malphite, who is almost purely melee, cope with enemy poke. **It also makes him straight up tankier which helps him absorb as much damage as possible. **An added bonus is that the shield makes recalling safer since enemies have to break it to stop the channel. * **Malphite's Q is a projectile that slows and damages the target while speeding him up for 4 seconds. **It is recommended to max this first against ranged opponents and/or mages. **It has respectable base damage when maxed and can be used for poke. However, it's mana cost is quite high so use it sparingly. **Use this to run up to your opponent in order to start your combo. **Conversely, it can be used for running away and disengaging. **If your enemy is out of range, Q a minion or monster to get the speed boost to do either of the aforementioned uses. * **Malphite's W passively grants him extra and makes his autoattacks deal bonus AoE damage when activated for 6 seconds. **It is recommended to max this ability second or last as it scales on a % of your armor which will only be noticeable when you already have built some armor. **Use this to help clear waves or jungle camps and when you are fighting long extended trades. **It does not reset your autoattack animation nor does it deal bonus damage to towers so only use it when taking towers to proc . * **Malphite's E deals AoE damage and slows the attack speed of all enemies hit for 3 seconds. **This should be maxed first if the enemy is melee and reliant on autoattacks. **The attack speed slow (along with his massive amount of armor) is what makes Malphite amazing against AD champions. Be sure to hit them with this ability or your effectiveness will drop sharply. **It's damage scales with your so it hurts a lot even in full tank builds. **It is cheaper to cast than so you can afford to use it more often. **Use this in conjunction with to make quick work of minion waves and monsters. * **Malphite's ult makes him dash to an area, knocking up and damaging enemies hit. **This turns Malphite's subpar team-fighting into one of the best as it can knock up and incapacitate entire enemy teams. **It can be used offensively to start a fight or defensively to protect your carries. **It can also be used as an effective escape as Malphite is unstoppable during the dash. **The ability deals a decent chunk of damage even without so it can be used to burst enemies down as well. ;Runes Usage * is a great keystone to take on because it allows you to weave in extra damage with poke. **Take Comet with for some significant poke damage in the early game. **Since generally builds Cooldown reduction items, his ultimate cooldown drops significantly compared to the base cooldown without this rune and no CDR. * is another keystone you can take if you are looking to take extended trades. ;Item Usage * is a good for as it offers health and armor to increase his tankiness. The passive AoE burn also supplements his damage and wave clear. It is once again a near mandatory item for Malphite, with its damage increased against champions, this item once again offers everything that Malphite wants, save for mana and CDR. * grants armor, mana and CDR which are all useful for Malphite. The bonus damage from the procs are also good since you will be weaving autoattacks in between abilities anyway due to . The ability's free armor also makes Iceborn's slow field huge due to the armor scaling on the item, giving another great source of AoE crowd control. * is a very good item for Malphite. It offers attack speed reduction which is really powerful when combined with Malphite's ability to reduce attack speed with his . But more importantly, it protects Malphite from critical strikes, allowing him to become an even more potent ADC counter. * are the recommended boots for Malphite in almost any situation. It reinforces Malphite's role as an anti-AD champion since AD champions are often the ones reliant on their basic attacks to do damage. The only situation where are recommended is if the enemy team is mostly AP and has lots of crowd control. * is your go-to magic resist item as it grants MR, health, cooldown reduction, and mana. The in its build path helps against magic damage which is of Malphite's biggest issues. The mana is really useful too because Malphite has high mana costs in general and lets him restore even more mana. Don't forget of the aura which increase Malphite's damage potential! ** However, might be a better choice if the enemy team happens to have champions with sustained magic damage, like , , , and . * (and by extension ) makes Malphite almost impossible for most physical damage duelists to deal with him, while at same time countering ADC's lifesteal, while further stacking attack speed reduction with , in addition to providing more damage (due to the extra armor and the passive adding yet another source of damage). All those aspects make Thormail an item that should be heavily considered on Malphite. * While does not offer any armor or magic resistance, it is nonetheless Malphite's only source of health sustain, so it can be considered in games where Malphite has to deal with poke or he is constantly getting out of battles with little health. It is also mandatory on ARAM since Malphite cannot to go back to base, as such it is impossible to recover health in any ways other than dying or having a teammate that can heal him. * gives Malphite both armor and magic resistance, and gives him even more resistances when nearby multiple enemies. This makes this item a good choice to consider when the enemy team has lots of both physical and magic damage. The active makes Malphite even tankier, but keep in mind that Malphite then reduces his own damage. And because he lacks good CC outside of his ultimate, his damage is most of Malphite's contribution during teamfights. * also offers both magic resistance and armor (it offers more MR than armor however). Its active is a good way to protect your team from damage, especially AoE damage, during teamfights. Malphite can use this item's active to provide an even better follow up for his team when he engages with his ultimate. * gives Malphite better mobility, which is many times very useful, since Malphite is quite immobile outside of his ultimate. However, it lacks the defensive properties of both and . * offers Malphite another mobility tool as well as a better way to engage with his ultimate. * can be considered in lieu of (or alongside it, but this isn't recommened since both items offer only armor and no health). While Malphite loses the potential damage and movement speed slow, he gains higher armor, as well as an attack speed slow that stacks with or , and , for an even stronger attack speed slowing. It can be considered if you prefer to be more durable instead of dealing more damage and having more CC. However, Malphite is often durable enough, and he really appreciates the slow from Iceborn Gauntlet, since he is lacking in CC, unlike other tanks. * Because Malphite has a fantastic 100% AP scaling on , and has reliable poke with , a little of AP can be considered on Malphite. He can also be built with fully AP instead, trading the ability to become a massive tank against physical damage for the ability to murder squishies and potentially deal ridiculous damage in an AoE with his ultimate. ** gives Malphite extra Health, Mana and Ability which will make him a more tanky AP damage dealer. ** offers Malphite everything he wants: Mana, AP and cooldown reduction. This makes this item a nearly mandatory choice on AP builds. ** is an obvious choice because in addition to having AP, it has armor, and Malphite still scales with armor even with an AP focused build. It has another amazing asset, however: It has an active that saves Malphite's life in many situations and allow him to avoid the following damage once he engages with . ** When you have enough AP, build a , as this transforms into an absolute nuke, but its other abilities's AP scalings are not nearly as high. ** , , and are all items that should be considered in an AP build, adding more damage sources and having utility in giving Malphite more mobility in some way. ** Malphite's base damage is high, but the same cannot be said of his AP scalings (except his ultimate). As such, magic penetration items like , , and , should be heavily considered. ;Countering *Being a tank with a kit oriented at countering AD champions, and with a massive armor steroid, the obvious solution is to pick AP champions. They counter because he is a lot more vulnerable to magic damage. Forcing Malphite to build magic resistance is a detriment to him since his armor scaling spells will do less damage, his armor steroid becomes weaker, and Malphite's kit itself isn't actually suited to deal with AP champions. **Some particular options to deal with him at top lane include: *** - Probably the biggest counter to Malphite, he can sustain against Malphite's damage, can build a for further sustain (without reducing his damage since he can gain AP from building HP) or can build a which in addition to giving Vladimir magic resistance, will deny Malphite's opportunities to engage. He can get tankier and have more sustain and Malphite can do nothing against that, other than build magic resistance and try to survive a bit more against Vlad, then hope that he can get good engages with his ult later in the game. Keep in mind that Vladimir can avoid being hit by with his (this is tricky to do, however, since has a very high travel speed). *** - He can freely harass Malphite during the lane phase, block Malphite's attempts to poke with his , and at late game can potentially be as useful during teamfights as Malphite, thanks to his . Malphite can do very little in this matchup because he gets constantly bullied early and is forced to build magic resistance. *** - A very brutal matchup for Malphite because he gets absolutely dominated by Heimer's turrets during the early game. Unlike the other aforementioned matchups, he can't resort to jungler assistance, since Heimerdinger can easily prevent ganks from happening with his turrets. *There are still some AD champions capable of dealing well with Malphite. A notable example is , due to his in-built armor penetration from , natural sustain, and overall ability to bully Malphite during the early game. While Malphite can build armor, that armor gets negated by Darius' armor penetration, and also by the true damage from . Darius doesn't really rely on his basic attacks for most of his magic damage so isn't as effective against him as it is against other champions. **Another notable example is , because he does magic damage even though he is AD. He also has sustain, and has better dueling potential overall. *Most other tanks tend to also do well against , since they do magic damage and do not have problems itemizing for magic resistance. A notable example is , which unlike Malphite, profits very well from building magic resistance. With his ult, , Galio can counter a possible engage from Malphite's team if he uses . **Other example is . He has sustain, better early game waveclear, and even if Malphite builds magic resistance, with , Cho'Gath can deal true damage and execute Malphite if he is low enough on health. *Overall, should never be blindly picked, since he is easy to counter. If the enemy team has more than one AP champion, Malphtie gets considerably weaker, since not only he is forced to build more magic resistance than usual, but AP compositions tend to have a lot of CC which screws with Malphite's ability to dive the backline. **He wants to be picked into situations where he is favorable. For example, against full AD teams, Malphite does very well, since he is free to stack as much armor as he wants, and ADs tend to not have the tools to stop Malphite from doing his job, like AP champions do. In fact, Malphite is one of the reasons why teams are heavily encouraged to pick at least one AP champion. *Building a is a strong option against Malphite, since it reduces his armor. It may sound like an obvious advice, but what isn't initially obvious is that if Malphite's armor is reduced, his spells become weaker, since both and scale with his armor. *As an AP champion, building can deny Malphite's opportunities to engage with his ultimate. can also work in that aspect, with the difference is that you have to time it very well, but with the advantage that you can control when you can use it, unlike Banshee's Veil, which can be poped by another spell. * means that you should avoid clumping as a team, since this can make it very easy for Malphite to land a spell on multiple members of your team. Watch out for when Malphite is paired with assassins, however, since assassins can prey on enemies that are distant from each other. *Watch out for AP . He has a very different playstyle from his tank counterpart. Instead of stacking armor and becoming a massive and durable tank, AP Malphite can nuke enemy champions with his combo, working pretty much like an AP assassin or burst mage. has high base damage AND AP ratio, making it an even deadlier spell if Malphite builds AP. When building AP, Malphite actually deals well with some AP champions, since many of them are immobile and have no way to deal with his combo or with his poke potential with . **However, AP Malphite falls off considerably late game, since unlike actual AP assassins, he can't get out once he engages. He is also significantly squishier, and other than his ultimate, he doesn't actually have good damaging spells. He is a lot more reliant on his ult than his tank counterpart, so if the enemy team manages to play around it, AP Malphite becomes useless. Category:Champion strategies Category:Malphite